Kingdoms of Amalur IP Goes to Auction This Month

[BlameTheWizards]

Kingdoms of Amalur IP Goes to Auction This Month

Developers will have the chance to loot the partially completed MMO "Project Copernicus" off the body of 38 Studios as Rhode Island attempts to recoup $90 million of lost taxpayer money.

Diehard fans of 2012 RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning might want to pool their money together later this month when the state of Rhode Island puts the IP for that series up for sale. The main piece of loot in that haul is "Project Copernicus," the MMO that developer 38 Studios was basing off the newly-created Amalur property before the company closed in May of 2012.

Once thought to be the start of a major new franchise, Reckoning instead put the state of Rhode Island on the line for $90 million. 38 Studios received millions of dollars [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117785-Amid-Controversy-38-Studios-Declares-Bankruptcy-UPDATED] in loans to move to Rhode Island, before the company eventually declared bankruptcy. The state became the owners of the Amalur property after 38 Studios couldn't pay back its investment.

However, how valuable Amalur and "Project Copernicus" will be is debatable. Joystiq's News Editor Alexander Sliwinski was asked by a Rhode Island news station to weigh in on the matter, and it was not a rosy forecast. "If someone is thinking that Rhode Island is going to sell this for millions and millions of dollars, I would have a very difficult time believing that," he said, citing the industry's current risk-aversion to MMOs.

Richard Land, 38 Studios' court-appointed receiver, disagreed. "The bulk of the game and intellectual property I don't believe is stale because the artwork is current, the tech used to develop the artwork is current, the concept is a current concept," he said.

Land said he expected to have a date for the auction established later this week. He declined to say how much he expected the Amalur IP to go for, but did say there were interested parties.



Souce: Joystiq

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[Doom972]

$90 million? Do they want to keep to themselves out of spite? I never played Amalur (except a few minutes of the demo), but I know that it has fans who would probably be disappointed to see it like this.

I doubt that it's worth $90 million to anyone.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

Huh. And I just uninstalled it off my hard drive.

At this point, KoA is a dead horse so heavily beaten, subatomic particles remain. I'd be surprised if *anyone* decided to grab KoA, considering how much hell it was put through via sheer incompetence and financial mismanagement.

(captcha: morning person. No, I'm not.)

 

[JayRPG]

Huh. And I just uninstalled it off my hard drive.

At this point, KoA is a dead horse so heavily beaten, subatomic particles remain. I'd be surprised if *anyone* decided to grab KoA, considering how much hell it was put through via sheer incompetence and financial mismanagement.

(captcha: morning person. No, I'm not.)

How is 1 solitary game based in a universe with enough lore to build and maintain an MMO beating a dead horse?

Reckoning sold impressively for a brand new IP, has good reviews and is well regarded as a great game;
There is no reason why someone wouldn't grab the Amalur IP.

The buyer doesn't have to go ahead with the MMO plans, it could be adapted as a single player or they could simply start from scratch and build new games in the KoA universe, which as mentioned earlier, is huge.

I, for one, hope to see more Amalur games in the future, I had way more fun playing reckoning than I ever did playing Skyrim.

 

[InsanityRequiem]

I'm wary of this auctioning now, since it came out that SEC is investigating Rhode Island, 38 Studios, and the entirety of the loan process that caused this entire mess. The high price point and the quickness of the auctioning makes me think Rhode Island's trying to get rid of the IP before SEC's findings come out, as if SEC might find something that could damage Rhode Island and the $90 million price point would be too overpriced, if even legal at all.

 

[LaoJim]

I'm playing Amalur at the moment and it's a great game. So I feel sorry that 38 Studios went out of business shortly after releasing this.

Having said that I can't see that this is an IP that is worth all that much. The story in Amalur is not particularly well told, and is the standard Tolkienesque Elves and Dwarves (or at least Fae and Gnomes) setting. There are some interesting ideas about the Fae's being part of some constantly re-enacted story, but not enough to make it truely unique. The combat is much better than most RPGs and it looks good, but if you wanted to create a RPG you could do something similar without needing to pay out.

Name recognition? Well maybe, you might want to buy it figuring that fans will want to buy a sequel, but are there enough to make it worth your while? Plus fans are famously fickle in criticizing any changes you might want to make to the world, so it's hard to give it1 much more appeal. And there are few enough big RPGs that if the markets there you might as well just make something Amalurish and still get sales.

Maybe I'm completely wrong about this, but as the article says, I don't think it will fetch a high price.

 

[mattttherman3]

Amalur is a fun game to be sure. However, it is as standard as you can get for rpgs. Pretty generic story too.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I can't see the IP selling for a lot. The game did have a great fighting system that offered tons of variety and its class system was very unique and curbed min-maxing. The crafting system was cool and the gameworld was very interesting and visually charming. But still, not exactly something that's going to garner a huge check for the auction. Still, at the very least I hope the IP can stick around

 

[Dr.Awkward]

You're selling KoA, you say? Well, my bid is 'bout tree fiddy. That's all it's worth considering all the bad mojo surrounding it.

 

[Lunar Templar]

lol, no

I liked Amalur, sank a bunk of time into it.(that sum ***** is LONG o.o)

but 90 million? for a new IP? and a high risk MMO project? Unless the MMO is ready to ship they are price gouging, hoping theres enough interest in the IP to find a buying and hoping they're to stupid to know their being ripped off.

You're selling KoA, you say? Well, my bid is 'bout tree fiddy. That's all it's worth considering all the bad mojo surrounding it.

that much? I figured the price would be more a long these lines [http://www.endalldisease.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/50-Cent1.jpg]

(sorry, had to given the wording)

 

[Tanis]

I REALLY enjoyed KoA, the game play beat any TES game, but I don't see it going for more than a million (if that).

RI is kidding themselves if they think ANYONE is going to drop 90 million on it.

 

[r0seyp0m]

Huh. And I just uninstalled it off my hard drive.

At this point, KoA is a dead horse so heavily beaten, subatomic particles remain. I'd be surprised if *anyone* decided to grab KoA, considering how much hell it was put through via sheer incompetence and financial mismanagement.

(captcha: morning person. No, I'm not.)

How is 1 solitary game based in a universe with enough lore to build and maintain an MMO beating a dead horse?

Reckoning sold impressively for a brand new IP, has good reviews and is well regarded as a great game;
There is no reason why someone wouldn't grab the Amalur IP.

Eh.... not really, actually. That's one of the problems: KoA got really mixed reviews and was widely regarded as okay, at best, often found mediocre by most. At worst it was called a "single player MMORPG" and people didn't like that.

Not saying I didn't enjoy the 60 hours I put into it, but there you have it.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

KoA was a thoroughly tedious, bland and unoriginal offline WoW clone. 6 hours I gave it and all were wasted. Couldn't care less what happened to this "IP". Don't really understand why anyone is making a big deal about auctioning off such a thing; making a sub-par game then auctioning off the rights to it is laughable and bidding on it is a waste of money.

 

[Stillgard]

I played KoA, And yes. I was extremely disappointed with it. As much as I would have loved to have seen a sequel with better results *pokes Mcfarlan* Yes I am talking to you. They give us this yet another company nerd rage quitting. I am afraid the IP is not even remotely worth the 90 mill there asking for.

 

[llubtoille]

I could be reading this wrong, but I think the $90mil is the amount of cash they've lost, not the asking price for the IP.

 

[Jumwa]

KoA was a thoroughly tedious, bland and unoriginal offline WoW clone.

That's exactly what it was, but with some more actiony gameplay thrown in. I enjoyed it for a time, until I realized each zone was just a tedious repetition of the last, with more meaningless quests, the same railroad to run through.

The world didn't have the life or interest in it that other big RPGs have. It was a bit stale.

With that said, I feel I got my money's worth. I got it on sale for $5 and I did get a few hours of play out of it. It was far from a great game, but it was an okay one with no real standout moments or features.

Actually, on further thought, a friend bought it for me. So I guess I totally got my money's worth.

 

[Tactical Pause]

I could be reading this wrong, but I think the $90mil is the amount of cash they've lost, not the asking price for the IP.

You're not wrong, that's exactly it. There's no way they'll make back everything they lost, this is just an effort to regain some small amount of what they threw away on that loan.

 

[Webb Myers]

It really depends on the quantity and quality of those "art assets". Supposedly they had been working on it for 6 years and it was less than a year from launch when the studio closed. If the world is 90% done and someone like Turbine could finish it off for a couple million and release it as a F2P...then yes, it will probably sell.

They are probably overvaluing the IP itself because of the big names (R A Salvatore and Todd McFarlane) attached to it. Still, it's best to sell it off now while it's still current and someone will talk themselves into making a game out of it.

 

[Little Gray]

I could be reading this wrong, but I think the $90mil is the amount of cash they've lost, not the asking price for the IP.

That is correct. There is just a lot of really stupid people on the escapist who dont really know how to read.

 

[JayRPG]

Huh. And I just uninstalled it off my hard drive.

At this point, KoA is a dead horse so heavily beaten, subatomic particles remain. I'd be surprised if *anyone* decided to grab KoA, considering how much hell it was put through via sheer incompetence and financial mismanagement.

(captcha: morning person. No, I'm not.)

How is 1 solitary game based in a universe with enough lore to build and maintain an MMO beating a dead horse?

Reckoning sold impressively for a brand new IP, has good reviews and is well regarded as a great game;
There is no reason why someone wouldn't grab the Amalur IP.

Eh.... not really, actually. That's one of the problems: KoA got really mixed reviews and was widely regarded as okay, at best, often found mediocre by most. At worst it was called a "single player MMORPG" and people didn't like that.

Not saying I didn't enjoy the 60 hours I put into it, but there you have it.

Uhhh.. mixed reviews?

7.5/10 gamespot
9/10 IGN
74% pcgamer
8/10 destructoid
7.8/10 computerandvideogames
8/10 Videogamer
8/10 trustedreviews
4/5 gamesradar
9/10 softpedia

Metacritic has it at 81% with 22 positive critic reviews, 3 mixed and no negative.

g4tv is about the only place I can find that gave it a bad review (2.5 out of 5).

I would safely say that, generally, KoA got good reviews.